Fear Itself
by Chronophobian
Summary: "A wise man once told me that the only thing to fear, is fear itself. To the civilians we are fear itself, we represent all of the moral ambiguity of this world, the nightmare under the bed, they cannot understand us, and because of this, they cannot help but fear us. Naruto, by official decree of the Fire Lord I am to be the last Hokage of Konoha." Post-War AU


Fear Itself

" _A wise man once told me that the only thing to fear, is fear itself. To civilians, we are fear itself, we represent all of the moral ambiguity of this world, the nightmare under the bed, they cannot understand us, and because of this, they cannot help but fear us."_

(A:N I must admit that I got the idea for this story whilst reading the story Pain, Hunger and Betrayal by Tyrannitor. If you have not read his story I would highly advise you go and take a peek. This will not be a happy story, it's possible that there will be a light at the end of the tunnel, but for the most part I aim for it to be a downward spiral of terrible and unfortunate situations. There might be a mild romantic/love interest but that is undecided as of now. As always, please review constructively. I wont be offended by any helpful advice, I know I am not a professional writer and probably wont ever reach that level of skill. Let me know what you guys think, if this prologue is well received I will post more of what I have begun to write.)

* * *

Swampy muck and bits of debris sloughed off his skin and clothes as he pushed himself out of the water, gentle waves rolled away from him as it returned to the placid waters below him. A shiver threatened to work its way down his spine as the bone deep cold assaulted him, he squashed the urge violently. Any movement above the slow crawl that he maintained would alert the shinobi sentries too soon, and then he would be in for a hellacious fight, something he wasn't interested in doing. Slowly, inch by inch, he moved across the swampland like molasses creeping across the ground. The human eye is a highly specialized tool, only visually focusing on about ten percent of the total vision, the rest is known as peripheral vision. The peripheral vision isn't nearly as focused, and the brain processes it differently, it relies on rapid changes in the surroundings (movement) to determine where it should focus. So if you move slowly, and with proper precision and care as not to disturb your surroundings, you can sneak up quite close to the enemy without them noticing you. This was how Naruto had managed to crawl to within fifteen feet of the entrance to his target without being noticed.

The building wasn't anything special, a roughhewn log fortress constructed by rogue ninja looking to gain the upper hand in the chaotic aftermath of the Fourth Great Shinobi War. Naruto's eyes wandered across the exterior of the building, despite being hastily constructed it looked to have been well thought out, there were murder holes in the exterior that were blocked from the inside, one entryway, obvious roof access if the four sentries on the roof were any indication, and sturdy enough to prevent easy intrusion through the walls.

He lay still for a few minutes, observing the guards along the top and sensing the chakra of the roving sentries behind him. These weren't amateurs, there were no obvious gaps in their patrols and he had only managed to slip by them because he had become so proficient at suppressing his massive chakra presence.

It soon became obvious that he was at the end of the line, he couldn't cross the next fifteen feet of open field without being spotted by the roof sentries for sure, no matter how slowly he crawled. Instead he opted for a less subtle approach, his hand slipped down into one of the pouches strapped to the vest he wore and pulled out a handful of senbon needles. He threw them in one swift motion, and watched with satisfaction as they lanced out of his hand faster than the eye could follow. The small gleaming needles punctured neatly into the man looking in his direction, one right in the hollow of his throat, two in his jaw and cheek, and one nearly dead center in his eye.

The man reflexively swallowed at the obtrusion in his throat, and he could see the slight moment of panic in his posture before he slumped into unconsciousness. It would be mere minutes before they discovered him, he would need to work quickly. Abandoning his stealthy crawl he threw himself forward and dashed across the remaining fifteen feet to the entrance, the door was the only part of the structure made from milled wood and not roughhewn logs, and the weakest part of the bunker.

The door yielded to his touch, they hadn't locked it. Considering most of the rogue ninja were at least Chuunin level they must have fallen into the usual trapping that shinobi didn't need locks, they probably thought they could sense anyone approaching and deal with them before they ever reached the door.

Pushing the door open the rest of the way he darted in, kunai in hand. The interior entryway was just a long hallway, likely reaching all the way to the other end of the building before branching off in two separate directions at a T junction. The kunai left his hand instinctively as he spotted the surprised guard lounging in a chair with a book in hand. His legs churning against the ground, trying to cover the distance before the man could raise the alarm.

The kunai impacted solidly into the wood behind the man, who had the wherewithal to dodge. The reflexes born of a man who was a veteran of a war. Naruto grimaced as thoughts of the war came unbidden into his mind, at one point these men were his comrades against the madness of the Fourth Shinobi War, now they were reduced to banditry just to survive. It was such a senseless waste to eliminate them just because their nation couldn't pull its shit together, but the word was firm, they threatened major shipping lanes that brought large sums of money into Konoha.

The man got half of a yell out before he had crossed the distance and slammed his much larger bulk into him. They crashed to the ground and slid into the wall behind where the man had been sitting, another Kunai appearing in his hand as they wrestled momentarily. Using his weight to pin the man to the floor he jerked the sharpened blade upwards through the bottom of his jaw, severing the brainstem and killing the man instantly.

He dislodged the blade and pushed himself into a crouched position, the distant thumps and scrabbling sounds indicated that the man's half completed yell had alerted someone. Determining the sounds had come to his right he bounded through the hallway and into the side room, and right into three men, all clearly former Mist ninja, looking as if they had just woken up from sleeping and were coming to investigate the sudden disturbance. His blade flashed in the dim light as he pushed through the first man and into the second. A wet gurgle followed him as he plunged the kunai deep into the soft tissue under the man's clavicle, hoping to sever the carotid artery thrumming with life. The massive surge of dark blood that sprayed out as he ripped the knife free indicated that he had scored a decisive blow and he pushed hard against the man to create room.

Using his larger frame and immense strength to bully the ninja around like they were children in comparison, he dashed forward with the kunai held in a forehand grip and lashed out at the man he had stabbed in the shoulder, hoping to finish him quickly. He brought out his own kunai to counter, but with only one good arm he would last moments at best. He felt a surge of chakra, and felt the familiar feeling of a foreign chakra entering his own. The tiniest surge of demonic chakra flooded his system for a moment, burning the foreign chakra from his system. The gasp that came from the man hiding behind his wounded comrade was enough to break the concentration of his foe, allowing him to plant his blade firmly in the side of his neck.

As he ripped the blade free and turned to the one man remaining in the room it made sense why they had been so hard to find, someone proficient in Genjutsu would make covering their tracks incredibly easy. He advanced on the man as he cowered on the floor next to a cot, he could see the fear in the man's eyes, the recognition, and the knowledge that no matter what he did it wouldn't be enough to stop him. Naruto was merciful and ended his life quickly, a sick feeling rushing through his body, an overly warm clammy feeling that left him utterly repulsed. Such was the life of a ninja.

As he turned to leave the room, having already cleared it of additional ninja, a cracking, splintering sound reverberated around him. A thin water dragon burst through the log ceiling, he pushed chakra through his feet and leapt away from where he had been standing as the dragon shredded the floor and dissipated. It was a foolish move to launch a technique like that and give away the knowledge that they knew he was here, rather than setting up a trap that he would have surely walked into. Two sealless, wordless Shadow Clones phased into existence on either side of him and dashed off in different directions to sow confusion and separate the enemy force.

As the two clones ran off the original flashed through several hand-seals and expelled a vicious gust of wind from his mouth. The gust tore through the roof of the building like it was wet paper, leaving a jagged hole wider than his arm span. A quick hop and he was through the opening and on the roof, his eyes straining to adjust to the light difference. His sixth sense screamed at him to move and he rolled backwards on the uneven roof, tucking himself into a ball and then launching to his feet and lashing out with a fist in retaliation. One of the roof guards, presumably a Kenjutsu user by the sword in his hands, caught the full force of the punch in his sternum; the cracking of bones audible.

The man grimaced in agony and jumped away, trying to gain room so that he could make a second approach, something that was incredibly unintelligent against someone who specializes in close to mid-range combat. In the blink of an eye chakra formed in his core and was violently expelled from the tenketsu covering his body, an invisible cloud of wind exploded from him, hundreds of razor sharp blades churning in a self-contained column that shredded the roof as it raced towards the man. His opponent's reaction was admirable, though not quite enough to fully escape the wrath of the wind, he screamed as the wind blades tore into his side and lacerated the left side of his body. The cuts deep enough to be fatal within minutes unless treated by a medic-ninja.

While this was happening the two other guards were anything but idle, a volley of water bullets and a wall of wind came rippling across the man who was now bleeding to death on the rooftop, rolling his body over, and rushing towards him. A combination technique, even if used by two different people, could be quite deadly. With a wall of death heading towards him his only option was backwards, or forwards, going around would take too long and he would be clipped by the edge of the technique; Deciding on the latter he quickly wrapped his body in a thick layer of screeching wind, pouring more chakra into it than probably necessary, and dove headfirst into the opposing technique.

He was buffeted around slightly, having to correct his trajectory a couple of times, and one of the water bullets scraped off the outer shell of his bubble, but nothing penetrated his defense. He erupted from the other side in a cloud of debris, and allowed the wind sphere around him to dissipate. Shock filtered across the two former mist-ninja faces as he appeared, they clearly had assumed he would either be taken out by the technique or have been forced to retreat. A feral grin spread across his face as he darted across the rooftop, closing the distance, he enjoyed being unpredictable.

He delivered a series of blistering punches to the closest man as the other started running through hand-seals, his onslaught forcing the man onto his back foot and putting him on the defensive. He delved deep into his chest pouches and pulled out a handful of shuriken that he flicked towards the second man, intent on interrupting his concentration and preventing his technique from being cast. These were the skills that made him a superior shinobi, the level of muscle memory, experience, raw power, and instinct allowed him to combat multiple opponents and win where others would die. True to his intent the barrage of shuriken forced the ninja to move, interrupting his concentration and causing his technique to sputter. This extra time was long enough for Naruto to lunge within his melee opponent's guard, hook a leg behind his, push him over, and fall on top of the man with a whirling Rasengan.

The rage in the last man's eyes was palpable as Naruto leveraged himself off the corpse beneath him, and for the first time he took a good look at the men he was fighting. The resemblance between the two was recognizable, they had the same slope of the nose, the same high cheekbones and pinched features. There was an obvious relation between the two, perhaps even as close as immediate family. The sick feeling welled up inside of him again as he realized that he had just killed one of this man's family members, he knew what the man was feeling, the inability to protect your precious people. Knowing what the man must be feeling he did the only thing possible to him, he drew on the immense power housed within him and launched himself at the lone survivor in the base.

To the man he must have disappeared, the chakra enhancing his body and allowing him to move at speeds faster than the unassisted eye could follow. The man was able to block his first strike, pulling a kunai in to guard his chest and deflecting his own blade, he continued past the man, allowing his momentum to carry him across the roof before rebounding and coming at the man's back. His blade sank deep into the man's lower back, the perfect blow to the kidney, and remained there. A new one appeared in his right hand as his left reached around the man's body and secured the man's hands with his own, thereby preventing him from retaliating. One quick strike to the neck with his kunai and the man went limp in his arms, the dark red lifeblood gushing onto his flak jacket.

Placing the man gently on the ground next to his family member he considered sealing the corpses but decided against it. He returned to the hole he had created in the roof and leapt down, landing gently on the floor below. Looking quickly into the room he had not yet explored, and finding only a kitchen and living area with nothing of importance he returned to the hallway. He stood still momentarily, sensing for the chakra signatures of the roving patrols that would have felt the spikes in chakra. As he had suspected all of the signatures within his sensing radius were heading directly for the building. He began weaving hand seals, a long and complex string of seals interlocking two separate techniques that would bring about a devastating effect.

As he sped through the hand-seals his chakra flared to life, a bright blue aura that bore down the weight of his presence on the surrounding area. He could feel those outside the building stutter as his power saturated the area, his hand locked in the tiger seal, and the world burned. Rock superheated to magma and churned up through the upper crust of dirt and earth, blasting from the ground with enough force to rumble the earth for hundreds of yards, the magma turned lava leaping into the sky before crashing back down to the ground, consuming the building and the rogue shinobi.

The rogue shinobi didn't even have a chance to scream as the scorching, molten rock smothered their flesh and dragged them down into the earth, sealing them in their grave of solid stone. As the technique finally finished and the noise subsided he surveyed his surroundings, what had once been a roughhewn log fortress was now a few charred logs sticking at odd angles out of the new terra firma.

He slouched slightly as a wave of fatigue washed over him, combining two large scale techniques was tiring even for someone with as much chakra to throw around as he had. It wasn't like the normal drain of running out of chakra, exerting your will on the physical world took concentration, focus, willpower, and doing such a complex technique as to change the nature of the ground was mentally straining if not effective. The familiar weight of a headache settled behind his eyes, despite being one of the most powerful shinobi still alive in the elemental nations he could count the number of people who could work such a technique on one hand and have fingers to spare.

The ground crunched slightly beneath his feet as he picked his way across the battlefield, a frown adorning his face. He had changed much in the years since the end of the war, and despite his desire being contrary, killing was now a routine part of keeping the peace. With the Elemental Nations practically in shambles at the end of the war refugees, disease, and famine had rampaged across the lands. Protecting those precious to him had never been such a difficult thing to do.

He surveyed the carnage that he had wrought one last time before turning and leaping into the trees, doing his best to put the memories of those he had killed behind him.

* * *

The return trip to the Village Hidden in the Leaves was much quicker than his departure, since he didn't have to track down the bandits and sneak into their hideout it only took a few days instead of a week. As a shinobi with massive chakra reserves, and natural Uzumaki stamina, he was able to cross hundreds of kilometers in a single day, never mind the fact that half of it involved skating across the sea between the scattered islands of the Land of Water and the mainland border of the Land of Fire. The technique was an interesting one he had picked up from some of the local Mist forces still loyal to the Village Hidden in the Mist. It was a combination of using elemental manipulation to make the surface of the water incredibly slick and then ejecting a constant stream of chakra from the sole of his foot to provide propulsion.

He encountered no one of note on the return trip, and was ushered quickly through the checkpoints by reverent ninja who still praised him for his heroism in the Fourth Great Ninja War. Those who manned the checkpoints and forward bases scattered around the Land of Fire were usually chuunin, and lacked any sort of attachment that tied them inside the Village Hidden in the Leaves. Due to this, they didn't see him on a regular basis and most had elevated him to some kind of pedestal that they worshipped. To them he was just the Hero of the War, they didn't know him, and their hero worship irked him every time he had to interact with them.

By the time he had made it back to the village gates he was thoroughly irritated, and desired nothing more than to return home and crash onto his bed. Perhaps though, there _was_ time for a bowl of Ramen, or several. He changed direction mid stride, having taken the scenic walking route to be able to appreciate the beauty of the village. Villagers called out greetings to him as he worked his way through the winding streets and he quietly returned them.

The sun had hung low in the sky when he had entered the village, and after the truthfully short walk to his favorite Ramen stand it had disappeared below the horizon, allowing the creeping tendrils of dusk to finally settle upon the village. He pushed past the flaps, entering the shop, and greeted Teuchi before ordering a simple miso ramen. As he sat on one of the stools, twirling a set of chopsticks between his fingers, he let his mind wander back to the mission he had just completed. Images flashing through his mind and drawing him into a stupor, it wasn't an uncommon sight to find him here after a mission, Teuchi just brought him his ramen with a quiet smile and wandered into the back of the shop with a sad smile and a knowing look on his face.

Breaking himself out of his rumination he said his thanks for the meal and dug in, slurping the noodles out of the steaming broth with more than a little bit of delight. The salty flavor of the miso soup so pleasantly warming him and providing an almost placebo happiness. He could hear Teuchi rummaging around in the back, though for what reason he could not discern, and debated another bowl. The knowledge that his mission report was due in the morning helped sway him from seconds, and he yelled his thanks to the ramen chef before slipping back out into the cooling evening air.

* * *

Naruto yawned and stretched for what felt like the billionth time that morning, he had been forced to wait in line like everyone else, with his mission report tucked under his arm, inevitably bored to death by the bureaucracy of the Village Hidden in the Leaves. He could have sworn that the chuunin manning the desks in the mission assignment office just liked to make people wait, there should be no reason that it took more than thirty minutes to just drop off a mission report scroll.

A puff of smoke followed by a muted pop erupted in the space next to him, while most ninja could perform the body flicker without the flair it was considered polite to do so to announce ones presence. There was something very unnerving about a ninja just appearing out of thin air next to you, and usually garnered some kind of violent response. As the smoke cleared his eyebrow arched ever so slightly, a member of the ANBU stood before him, the doe mask stared blankly at him for a moment before the head inclined in his direction.

A soft and decidedly feminine voice filtered out from behind the mask without being distorted, a neat trick of sealing.

"Naruto Uzumaki, the Hokage has requested your presence immediately. I have been instructed to deliver your mission report for you."

Mild interest flashed across his face at the request, it was uncommon but not unexpected, as a Jounin of the village he was occasionally called upon for one reason or another. He reached up and pulled the scroll from under his arm, handed it to the ANBU, and flickered out of the office. With some amusement he noted that the ANBU agent bypassed the entire line, handed the scroll to one of the chuunin without a word and disappeared.

He bounded across the rooftops, and reached the hokage tower in moments, the two buildings weren't that far apart. He leaped to the open window, perching on the sill and peering into the gloom of the Hokage's office. A shock of silver hair that seemed to defy gravity sat behind the desk in a plush chair.

The chair swiveled and the bored eye of the currently reigning Sixth Hokage and his Genin team Sensei Kakashi Hatake landed upon his crouched form.

"Yo, Naruto."

Naruto nodded in greeting and leapt gently to the smoothly polished wooden floor and went to stand at rest in front of the large desk that overflowed with paperwork. Kakashi stood from his chair, the traditional robes of the Hokage flowing about him as he walked to the ground and placed on hand on Naruto's shoulder.

"I think we need to have a talk."

Immediately a sense of foreboding settled in the pit of his stomach, those words were never a precursor to anything joyous. With a grimace Naruto nodded his acquiescence and allowed Kakashi to lead him to an attached room designed to allow the Hokage to speak with clients and important members of the community in comfort, a lounge of sorts. He took a seat in one of the lush chairs, the soft leather creaking as he sank into it. Despite being early in the afternoon Kakashi pulled out a bottle of Sake, a local daiginjo blend that was quite pricy, and poured out two saucers.

Naruto accepted his and took a small sip, appreciating the smooth flavor of the sake. The two sat that way for several minutes, enjoying the quiet and comfortable silence. He could see a myriad of emotions flickering across Kakashi's face, and he let him stew in silence until he was ready to speak.

"I had a meeting with the Fire Lord while you were out of country."

The phrase itself was innocuous enough, it was the tone of voice and the meaningful look that Kakashi gave to Naruto that told him that he had planned the meeting for a time when he knew he would be absent.

"We talked about many things, the main point being the security of the Land of Fire. I am sure that you have seen the changes, there are more Samurai being deployed and trained, and public opinion of ninja has been steadily declining since its surge at the end of the war."

A haunted look crossed Kakashi's face, and Naruto realized that he hadn't ever seen the man look as old as he did now. He seemed to age almost a decade right in front of his eyes, he looked utterly exhausted and defeated.

"The lords of the five major countries have been talking Naruto, they are all of the opinion that ninja are obsolete and have presented me with a plan for the demilitarization of ninja as the primary fighting force of the Elemental Nations. While in some cases ninja are highly surgical in their technique to accomplish goals, it has been noted that just as often they cause mass destruction, killing civilians, destroying infrastructure at an enormous rate. The Lords no longer want to support a ninja military. This plan is as much to consolidate power under the Lords of the Nations as it is to retain a security and fighting force that the public approves of. The honor system of the samurai and their effectiveness as a defensive force has made them a very appealing choice."

Naruto was the picture of tumult. Emotion raged across his face faster than Kakashi could discern, the saucer of sake brought halfway to his lips, frozen mid sip as he struggled to process what Kakashi was saying.

"A wise man once told me that the only thing to fear, is fear itself. To civilians, we are fear itself, we represent all of the moral ambiguity of this world, the nightmare under the bed, they cannot understand us, and because of this, they cannot help but fear us."

The look on Naruto's face was a mixture of anger, fear, and desperation.

"Naruto, by official decree of the Fire Lord I am to be the last Hokage of the Village Hidden in the leaves."

He recoiled as if he had been slapped in the face, the saucer bursting in his hand, the clay shards digging deep into his hand and drawing blood. The sake dripped out of his clenched fist, and the enormous presence of Naruto's raging chakra boiled just beneath the surface of his skin, an ominous and suffocating presence that would force a lesser ninja to their knees.

Naruto drew in a deep shuddering gasp, his body wracking as it betrayed him and seized up. A deep rumbling coming from the dark place where Kurama resided. He stood up abruptly, catching even Kakashi by surprise at the sudden action.

"I… I need to go."

Kakashi said nothing as Naruto practically ran out of the room. He stayed in the lounge the rest of the night, staring at the last place he had seen Naruto. He was unbelievably weary, he had never wished for this, to have to be the one to crush his students greatest dream… he didn't know what to do, it was with too much resignation that he finally retired to his home to rest.


End file.
